Article excerpt

A dirt-poor Brazilian farmer could improve his lot in life if he
had access to far-off markets to sell his tiny melon crop. But he
lacks the capital and can't get financing to ship his fruit to
potential buyers.

A third world country is drowning in debt, but rich nations won't
refinance loans after corrupt leaders funneled previous aid into
their own pockets.

A multinational energy conglomerate sees opportunity in a
development project that would benefit millions, but the country in
question bars private investment in the energy sector.

President George W. Bush and 57 other world leaders gather this
week in Monterrey, Mexico, at the United Nations Conference on
Financing for Development, to consider solutions to just such
scenarios.

Representatives from both rich and poor nations are meeting with
the world's most successful business leaders to find ways to make
the world's wealth flow more smoothly and fairly. Organizers say
this conference marks an unprecedented level of participation by the
private sector.

"The private sector is much better qualified to create jobs than
governments," said businessman George Soros in an address on Monday.
But it will be up to governments of developing nations, he added, to
set the conditions that would encourage private investors to come.

"This is not just another UN conference," says Ruth Jacoby, a
Swedish diplomat to the United Nations and a senior delegate at the
Monterrey meeting. "This conference is not about aid."

This, say organizers, marks a change from typical aid conferences
where donor-nations pledge large sums of money that often go unpaid.

Conference officials admit privately that aid alone is not enough
to bring real development to the world's poorest nations. Or put
another way, there will simply never be enough aid given out.

The reason is "donor fatigue." Representatives of rich nations
say they are tired of handing out multi-million-dollar rescue
packages where 70 percent goes to cover either administrative costs
or into the pockets of corrupt leaders.

Organizers say the meat of the conference will probably come,
from side meetings of private business leaders and world financiers.
Those side meetings, lasting through the week, will consider
proposals that would aid development, such as the reduction of
punitive tariffs and the opening up of nationalized industries,
which are currently blocked by governmental, logistical, or trade-
related barriers. …